Photo-Chlorine Production with Hydrothermally Grown and Vacuum-Annealed Nanocrystalline Rutile

Thom Harris-Lee; Chris Bowen; Philip Fletcher; Yan Zhang; Yuanzhu Zhao; Jerome Innocent; Andrew Johnson; Zhenyu  Guo; Frank Marken

doi:10.1007/s12678-020-00630-x

Photo-Chlorine Production with Hydrothermally Grown and Vacuum-Annealed Nanocrystalline Rutile

Thom Harris-Lee, Chris Bowen, Philip Fletcher, Yan Zhang, Yuanzhu Zhao, Jerome Innocent, Andrew Johnson, Zhenyu Guo, Frank Marken

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Photo-generated high-energy surface states can help to produce chlorine in aqueous environments. Here, aligned rutile (TiO2) nanocrystal arrays are grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates and activated either by hydrothermal Sr/Ba surface doping and/or by vacuum-annealing. With vacuum-annealing, highly photo-active films are obtained with photocurrents of typically 8 mA cm-2 at 1.0 V vs. SCE in 1 M KCl (LED illumination with  = 385 nm and approx. 100 mW cm-2). Photoelectrochemical chlorine production is demonstrated in proof-of-concept scale in 4 M NaCl and suggested to be linked mainly to the production of Ti(III) surface species by vacuum-annealing, as detected by XPS, rather than to Sr/Ba doping at the rutile surface. The vacuum-annealing treatment is proposed to beneficially affect (i) bulk semiconductor TiO2 nanocrystal properties and electron harvesting, (ii) surface TiO2 reactivity towards chloride adsorption and oxidation, and (iii) FTO substrate performance.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	65-77
Number of pages	13
Journal	Electrocatalysis
Volume	12
Early online date	9 Nov 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12678-020-00630-x
Publication status	Published - 31 Jan 2021

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title = "Photo-Chlorine Production with Hydrothermally Grown and Vacuum-Annealed Nanocrystalline Rutile",

abstract = "Photo-generated high-energy surface states can help to produce chlorine in aqueous environments. Here, aligned rutile (TiO2) nanocrystal arrays are grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates and activated either by hydrothermal Sr/Ba surface doping and/or by vacuum-annealing. With vacuum-annealing, highly photo-active films are obtained with photocurrents of typically 8 mA cm-2 at 1.0 V vs. SCE in 1 M KCl (LED illumination with  = 385 nm and approx. 100 mW cm-2). Photoelectrochemical chlorine production is demonstrated in proof-of-concept scale in 4 M NaCl and suggested to be linked mainly to the production of Ti(III) surface species by vacuum-annealing, as detected by XPS, rather than to Sr/Ba doping at the rutile surface. The vacuum-annealing treatment is proposed to beneficially affect (i) bulk semiconductor TiO2 nanocrystal properties and electron harvesting, (ii) surface TiO2 reactivity towards chloride adsorption and oxidation, and (iii) FTO substrate performance. ",

author = "Thom Harris-Lee and Chris Bowen and Philip Fletcher and Yan Zhang and Yuanzhu Zhao and Jerome Innocent and Andrew Johnson and Zhenyu Guo and Frank Marken",

year = "2021",

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doi = "10.1007/s12678-020-00630-x",

language = "English",

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journal = "Electrocatalysis",

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T1 - Photo-Chlorine Production with Hydrothermally Grown and Vacuum-Annealed Nanocrystalline Rutile

AU - Harris-Lee, Thom

AU - Bowen, Chris

AU - Fletcher, Philip

AU - Zhang, Yan

AU - Zhao, Yuanzhu

AU - Innocent, Jerome

AU - Johnson, Andrew

AU - Guo, Zhenyu

AU - Marken, Frank

PY - 2021/1/31

Y1 - 2021/1/31

N2 - Photo-generated high-energy surface states can help to produce chlorine in aqueous environments. Here, aligned rutile (TiO2) nanocrystal arrays are grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates and activated either by hydrothermal Sr/Ba surface doping and/or by vacuum-annealing. With vacuum-annealing, highly photo-active films are obtained with photocurrents of typically 8 mA cm-2 at 1.0 V vs. SCE in 1 M KCl (LED illumination with  = 385 nm and approx. 100 mW cm-2). Photoelectrochemical chlorine production is demonstrated in proof-of-concept scale in 4 M NaCl and suggested to be linked mainly to the production of Ti(III) surface species by vacuum-annealing, as detected by XPS, rather than to Sr/Ba doping at the rutile surface. The vacuum-annealing treatment is proposed to beneficially affect (i) bulk semiconductor TiO2 nanocrystal properties and electron harvesting, (ii) surface TiO2 reactivity towards chloride adsorption and oxidation, and (iii) FTO substrate performance.

AB - Photo-generated high-energy surface states can help to produce chlorine in aqueous environments. Here, aligned rutile (TiO2) nanocrystal arrays are grown onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates and activated either by hydrothermal Sr/Ba surface doping and/or by vacuum-annealing. With vacuum-annealing, highly photo-active films are obtained with photocurrents of typically 8 mA cm-2 at 1.0 V vs. SCE in 1 M KCl (LED illumination with  = 385 nm and approx. 100 mW cm-2). Photoelectrochemical chlorine production is demonstrated in proof-of-concept scale in 4 M NaCl and suggested to be linked mainly to the production of Ti(III) surface species by vacuum-annealing, as detected by XPS, rather than to Sr/Ba doping at the rutile surface. The vacuum-annealing treatment is proposed to beneficially affect (i) bulk semiconductor TiO2 nanocrystal properties and electron harvesting, (ii) surface TiO2 reactivity towards chloride adsorption and oxidation, and (iii) FTO substrate performance.

U2 - 10.1007/s12678-020-00630-x

DO - 10.1007/s12678-020-00630-x

M3 - Article

SN - 1868-2529

VL - 12

SP - 65

EP - 77

JO - Electrocatalysis

JF - Electrocatalysis

ER -

Photo-Chlorine Production with Hydrothermally Grown and Vacuum-Annealed Nanocrystalline Rutile

Abstract

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